'Sandy,' who says she was sexually abused by her older brother during her teenage years, fears the case will be thrown out.

Photograph by: Stuart Gradon
, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — The calls have been heartbreaking. Victims of sexual abuse are desperate and worried. The cases against their abusers are grinding away so slowly through the courts, they fear they will suffer the same fate as a 27-year-old sexual assault victim who was at the centre of a political and judicial storm in Alberta, after the case against her stepfather was thrown out of court as a result of “unreasonable delay.”

Last month, a woman who asked to be called Arizona for the purposes of publication, contacted her Airdrie MLA, Rob Anderson of the Wildrose Party, to protest the travesty of justice that allowed her former stepfather — who allegedly sexually assaulted her from the age of nine until she was 17 — to have all charges against him dropped in October.

By the time his trial would have wrapped up in November, 38 months would have passed, which is longer than what the Supreme Court of Canada determines is acceptable for a simple case.

Now other sexual abuse victims fear the same thing will happen to their cases.

One of them is a 57-year-old Calgary woman, who cannot be named, but who will be called Sandy for the purposes of publication. She says the case against her older brother is moving so glacially, she fears the same thing will happen to her that happened to Arizona.

Along with Sandy, other family members say they, too, were raped and sexually assaulted by the 61-year-old family member — including his 38-year-old daughter, who will be called Janice in this column.

Two other sexual abuse victims who contacted the Herald fear the cases against their tormentors may also be thrown out because their case is taking so long to wind through the court process.

Indeed, according to a transcript of the Oct. 3 proceedings against Arizona’s sexual predator, the Crown prosecutor in the case, Achilles Grobler, tells Madame Justice Rosemary Nation of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary, that he suspects Arizona’s case won’t be the last serious trial to be stayed owing to systemic judicial delays that let dangerous predators walk free without so much as a mark on their records.

In the transcript, Justice Nation asks Grobler why he didn’t just enter a stay of proceedings rather than insist that he and the accused’s counsel appear before her.

“I think it was important to have something on the record given the serious nature of the case and, quite frankly, the systemic problems that have arisen out of Airdrie,” said Grobler.

“Unfortunately, My Lady, I don’t think this is going to be the first Askov matter.”

By that, Grobler is referring to one of two Supreme Court decisions that determined an accused’s right to a fair trial is jeopardized if the process is too slow and therefore must be tossed out.

“The stress this is causing is just so unbelievable,” explained Sandy through her tears.

“First, you go through the abuse, then you spend years and years hiding it and burying it.

“Then you finally have enough guts to come forward. It dredges all this buried stuff up, and then you learn there’s a chance this person who has abused so many people for decades could get off because the court process might have taken a few too many months,” she said, weeping.

“We live our lives believing we are nothing and then the courts reaffirm that,” she added.

Sandy’s brother was charged in May 2010 with 22 counts, including multiple counts of incest, sexual assault, sex with an underaged female, unauthorized possession of a firearm and other charges. Only the accused’s daughter, who will be called Janice in this column, has appeared at a preliminary hearing in July. Evidence from Janice’s mother won’t be heard at a preliminary hearing until April 2014.

“If this gets thrown out of court because of an unreasonable delay ruling, it will be beyond devastating,” said Janice.

The executive assistant says many members of her family have disowned her for coming forward against her biological father, who sexually abused her from the age of five until she was 12 along with many other females in the family.

Thankfully, the prosecutor in the case says most of the delays have been caused by the defence, so he’s confident that the case will go ahead, but Janice still worries.

Greg Lepp, Alberta’s assistant deputy minister of criminal justice, is conducting an investigation into Arizona’s case and others like hers. Lepp admits that so far this year, eight cases — five in Edmonton and three in Calgary — have been stayed as a result of delays considered too long by the courts.

Lepp says he is attempting to find a way to have cases that are in jeopardy of being thrown out because of unreasonable delay, flagged and then triaged — like in a hospital emergency room — to ensure the most serious criminal cases don’t get dropped.

That, however, may mean many more “minor” criminal matters may have to get stayed.

What’s more, the Harper government’s tough-on-crime bill, which imposes mandatory minimum sentences for numerous crimes — including victimless drug crimes — means many more criminals who might have pleaded guilty in the past to receive a conditional sentence, will now likely fight their charges, further clogging up the court system.

Janice says she finally gained the courage to lay charges against her father because of her daughter.

Her mother was babysitting her now six-year-old daughter — who was then about three — at Janice’s house and she heard her father’s voice in the background.

She had such a visceral response she threw up right in the car while she was driving.

“I was in Medicine Hat to take a course. I left and drove home, breaking the speed limit all the way. I knew then I had to break this cycle. I vowed that it would end with me,” declared Janice. “If the judicial system messes this up it will be a complete outrage.”

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